On Query Letters: Part 1 of 3

Part of my job as a literary agent's intern is to go through the Slush Pile. The slush pile is another term for Literary Agent's E-mail Inbox, which contains Query Letters.

Industry term: a query letter is a short message you send in lieu of your entire manuscript that should contain a pitch/hook (something that briefly describes what happens in your book while somehow piquing the agent's interest), the vital information about your book (word count, genre, title, anything else regarding the book's actual structure), and your publishing credits.

In the BOSS's e-mail inbox, I find daily any and all of the following:

--Query letters from good writers who wrote good manuscripts
--Query letters from decent writers who wrote... manuscripts
--Query letters from insane people, who have clearly been released from their commitments early
--E-mails somewhat resembling query letters that also somewhat resemble many RPGs and/or therapy sessions
--At the very least, some serious fodder for laughter, and/or fear that such people are out living among us, disguised as real humans

You may think I'm exaggerating... until you actually have the chance to dip into an agent's e-mail yourself.

The more query letters I read, the more I want to tear my hair out, because it seems like 99% of the people sending queries are Doing It Wrong... And their queries could so easily be fixed up!

I'll post On Query Letters: Part 2 of 3 on Friday, and explain the basic horrifying DON'TS of query letter writing.

In Part 3 of 3, coming to an Internet near you on Sunday, I'll rejoice and share the glorifying DOS of query letter writing.

In essence, I think all the rules can be summed up in one Big Momma Rule: don't rush. Don't hurry. Why are you hurrying? Do you have a publishing deadline to catch? Because if you are impatient, or unwilling to wait until your work is its very polished, then this is SO not the industry for you.

Part 2 on Friday!